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<TITLE>RE: Are we going mainstream?</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Nice to hear this Gerry. </FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>I think we are going mainstream. And because of that, this is a good time as any to openly discuss how to STAY mainstream. I fear the day when my supervisor says he prefers the "Microsoft clustering solution" over anything the Beowulf movement has produced. You just know it's comming. Yech.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Here are some things our movement should consider:</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2>* Marketing in general; counter-advertising to competing technologies as well.</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2>* Approval of standards; evaluation of software products</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2>* Benchmarking</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2>* Continued research (technology and market)</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2>* Sponsorship of research, educational, and public awareness programs</FONT>
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<P> <FONT SIZE=2>we do a lot of this already, it's just not well publicized, which is why I put marketing (which includes marketing research) at the top of the list.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Here's Microsoft's white paper on the subject:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/ntserverenterprise/techdetails/prodarch/clustarchit.asp" TARGET="_blank">http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/ntserverenterprise/techdetails/prodarch/clustarchit.asp</A></FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>This deserves a systematic tearing apart, which I'll be doing as time permits.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>And since I brought it up, might as well give an opinion: as companies continue to market Beowulf technologies, we stand to be moved into obscurity as some of the early adopters. For example Microsoft's adoption of newer clustering technology (e.g. Beowulf) would not do the movement any good, and in fact might damage it. They tend to embrase, extend, and eliminate percieved rivals to their products and licencing policies. Movements like the Beowulf movement do more good than any single company can hope to do.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Richard Schilling</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Webmaster/Web Integration Programmer</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Affiliated Health Services</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Mount Vernon, WA</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="http://www.affiliatedhealth.org" TARGET="_blank">http://www.affiliatedhealth.org</A></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>my other web site: <A HREF="http://www.nationalinformatics.com" TARGET="_blank">http://www.nationalinformatics.com</A></FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>> -----Original Message-----</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> From: Gerry Creager N5JXS [<A HREF="mailto:gerry@cs.tamu.edu">mailto:gerry@cs.tamu.edu</A>]</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Sent: Friday, November 17, 2000 6:07 AM</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> To: beowulf@beowulf.org</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Subject: Are we going mainstream?</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> I just got back from a meeting of the Great Plains Network in Kansas</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> City, where discussion of Beowulfery was rampant. And casual. One</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> participant mentioned the several clusters they have at North Dakota. </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> And the little one he keeps for personal projects in his </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> office. Okay,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> okay, so several (or most) of us have /Wulfs in our offices, still it</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> was a little interesting to hear about 'em from folks I don't see on</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> this list, mentioned in such casual way. </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> NCSA's implementing a general access 'Wulf. UCSD has at </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> least one, and</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> is implementing more. Classes in PVMN and MPI are commonplace.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Another issue discussed was the use of what I can only call now</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> "distributed beowulfery" in the general form of, say, seti@home, was</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> discussed not so much as something to look into, but something to</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> implement in the Internet 2 community.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> All in all, an interesting meeting.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> --</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Gerry Creager -- gerry@cs.tamu.edu</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Network Engineering |Research focusing on</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Academy for Advanced Telecommunications |Satellite Geodesy and </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> and Learning Technologies |Geodetic Control</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Texas A&M University 979.458.4020 (Phone) -- 979.847.8578 (Fax)</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> _______________________________________________</FONT>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Beowulf@beowulf.org</FONT>
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